Before I get to the Friday Flourish for today, I wanted to draw your attention to a post on caller and musician Jeff Kaufman's blog from earlier this week talking about a musician's POV when playing for a dance and how it differs from playing a concert, which I thought was especially interesting in light of my post from Wednesday about music's relationship to dancers from a dancer's POV. (For those of you who DJ crossover events, you might want to read that too, as I think there are some applicable tidbits to think about when planning set lists for a contra gig and it echoes some points DJ Gaga made in Monday's article.)Anyway, onward! This week's flourish takes the skaters' hold variant on a promenade that we discussed last week and pulls it into a swing variant. As one might expect, you can generate a lot of centrifugal force, so be prudent about doing this with people who have sore shoulders and the like.

This week's flourish is based on something I observed when I went out to my alma mater for the Dandelion Romp last April. One of the predominant promenade holds was a skaters' hold, which I had not seen used much in New England or the Mid-Atlantic, where I have danced before. So now we share with those of you who might not be as familiar with this hold.

You, too, can have your flourishes featured! Show them to me and they might get featured!

Coming up next week, we take another look at Spokane, WA's Deca-dance when I talk to DJ Gaga, who used to host Spintronica on radio station KYRS, as well as more syncretistic fun!

Happy Friday!

Carry on Dancing,

CS

This project has concluded as of mid-2013 (with an epilogue posted mid-2016) but we hope to see you soon on a contra dance floor! Meanwhile, head over to our Facebook page for upcoming techno contra events and other items of interest.

Author

I dance with abandon. I play with glowsticks. I look for music that is conducive to one or both. I play behind cameras. I write about all of the above. I'm based in Glen Echo's contra dance community outside of Washington, D.C., but I'm happy to go dance afield when I can. Lather, rinse, repeat. Always repeat.